EOHR held on Tuesday December 24th 2013 the third workshop on promoting citizenship among the youth at the headquarters of the organization, to train a group of university students, political parties, and political forces members about the promotion of the idea of citizenship among the youth.

Mr. Mohamed El-Badawy, Manager of the fieldwork unit in the EOHR, initiated the workshop by talking about the concept of citizenship, which goes back to the beginnings of the emergence of the human civilization with a continuous progress by the development of the civilization and the different social systems, and it is not surprising that the Universal declaration of Human Rights adopted in 1948 in its essence is considered the equality, and the citizenship is the justice, equality in rights, and duties among all the citizens, and the human dignity, therefore the citizenship concept establishes the relationship between the homeland and the citizen, which is based on the political and social efficiency of the individual.

El-Badawy has further added that the citizenship is considered the basic concept which promote the modern state to work in a constitutional basis of equality of rights and duties between the citizens of the country, and it is also the tool to build a citizen able to live in peace and tolerance with others on the basis of equality and equal opportunities and work in order to contribute to the construction and development of the nation to maintain a common life. At the same time the concept provides common inherited principles, values, habits, and behaviors that contribute in the formation of the citizen’s personality and characteristics that distinguish him from others, therefore it makes a common heritage secured for the homeland and the citizen.

El-Badawy has emphasized that the citizenship is considered social, legal, and political idea, which contributed in the evolution of the human society, and the development of the country by maintaining equality, justice, fairness, democracy, and transparency, also it helped in adopting partnership and ensuring the rights and duties, as well as it is working on lifting the disputes between the components of the society.

Then Mr. Karim Hasssan Abdeen; political science researcher, talked about the manifestations of globalization, pointing out that they are reflected in the affiliation of the individual to a specific homeland, the enjoyment of the rights of citizenship, the individual’s performance to the duties of citizenship, the active participation in the public affairs of the nation, managing the deference by the dialogue, the appreciation and the respect to the others regardless of their political, ethnic, religious, or cultural affiliations, and the actual practicing of the rights and duties.

Abdeen has further added that the citizen has different rights in the area of civil, political, economic, and cultural spheres, the citizenship rights depends on the Human Rights, therefore there are people who preserve the Human Rights as the citizenship rights, and there are other who differentiate between them both, which he tend to agree with, as the citizenship rights contain many specifics of Human Rights. Accordingly and based on the fact that the states translate the Human Rights in its laws and try to implement it , we can say that Human Rights are the citizens’ rights, however the citizens’ rights are not general Human Rights as it is related to a specific person who holds the nationality of the country he is located in, and we can set an example for that; the right of financial support in case of non-employment in Europe is considered as citizens’ right in France for example, however it is not a general Human Right for every human being outside the French nationality or has a legal residence in France. And also the citizens’ rights vary from one country to another while the Human Rights are general rights that have to be respected within the national territory and abroad. Accordingly every turn in the state legislation and the application of the Human Rights tend to consolidate those citizenship rights, and the citizenship entails three main types of rights and freedoms that should be enjoyed by all the citizens in the country without any discrimination; race, color, language, or any other status.

Abdeen has further pointed to the issue of affiliation, which tool important dimensions in the human history, as it is related to the instinctive side for the person which is greatly affected by the emotions and thus control the behavior of this person, which will influence his life and the life of the community, therefore the human life is effected by the religious, political, social, and intellectual affiliations.

This entry was posted on Tuesday, December 24th, 2013 at 4:46 pm
and is filed under Statements.
You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed.
You can skip to the end and leave a response. Pinging is currently not allowed.